A married couple and a former chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party are expected to open Shreveport's medical marijuana pharmacy — near two of the region's largest cancer centers — in about eight months.

Hope Pharmacy was awarded northwest Louisiana's sole medical marijuana pharmacy earlier this month by the state Board of Pharmacy in Baton Rouge. Jennifer and Doug Boudreaux and fellow co-owner Chris Whittington were granted the license for northwest Louisiana.

The Boudreauxs operates Boudreaux's Speciality Compound Pharmacy in Shreveport, the only nationally accredited pharmacy for compounding in the region.

Hope Pharmacy will be at 1410 Kings Highway Suite A. Nearby are the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; the LSU Health Shreveport medical school; the Shiners Hospitals for Children; and, about a mile away, the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center.

"The location is essential and convenient for patient care," Boudreaux said in an email.

The Boudreauxs are not Shreveport natives. Doug is from Lake Charles, where he also owns Boudreaux's New Drug Store. The Lake Charles pharmacy has been in his family for 94 years. He also owns two patents, one of which is associated with cancer prevention.

Jennifer is from Baton Rouge and has 23 years of pharmacy experience. The couple met in pharmacy school at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

"I made her laugh," Boudreaux said of the couple's courtship.

Whittington graduated from Huntington High School in Shreveport. He now works as an attorney in Baton Rouge with Williamson Fontenot Campbell & Whittington. According to his biography on the firm's site, he was twice elected chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party in 2006 and 2008. He stepped down in 2009 to focus on his law business, The Times-Picayune reported.

Whittington and Doug Boudreaux have been best friends since the 1990s, and they often hunt and fish together, Doug Boudreaux said. Boudreaux claims to be the better hunter and fisherman.

The three will operate the pharmacy but it's unclear how ownership percentages will be divided. Doug Boudreaux is listed as the owner's managing officer.

But it almost didn't happen.

Hope Pharmacy originally was ranked the region's second applicant, but an error prevented the board from seeing the group's full application.

"Part of our operations and policies were not accessible to the application review committee that reviewed our application," Boudreaux said. "We discovered the error when we appeared before the full Board of Pharmacy. The Board of Pharmacy allowed us to submit our entire policy that day."

The group also has experience with hospice care for more than 20 years. Boudreaux's pharmacies have contracts with 10 hospices and take care of nearly 200 patients in northwest Louisiana.

Boudreaux said he serves his customers with an "on-call" pharmacy and delivers medicine to patient homes.

"Many patients have symptoms of intractable nausea, pain and anxiety at end-of-life care," he said. "There are many medicines that we use to combat these symptoms, but the medical marijuana will be an additional product to help support our current therapies."

Marijuana pharmacies must get their marijuana from producers licensed by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Currently, agricultural centers at LSU and Southern University are the only approved producers in the state.

Licenses for pharmacies in Louisiana's nine regions have been granted. A tenth will be granted for a high-demand area at a later date.

The state Board of Medical Examiners has licensed seven doctors to recommend the drug to patients as of March 25. Each doctor is allowed to recommend the drug to 100 patients, though doctors can ask the Board of Medical Examiners to extend the cap. Patients also must visit a doctor each month to keep their recommendation for medical marijuana valid, the Advocate reported last month.

Boudreaux did not comment on his hopes for Louisiana's medical marijuana program but said he hopes his pharmacy will bring relief to people who need it.

"I hope that we are able to help patients that fail on other meds," he said. "I hope we bring them relief."